Posted by: Kurosaki_Kun
I know, right?
Jay acts like she's better than everyone else simply because she's a chick.
I hope she chokes to death.
Posted by: roman arrow12
I agree. What do you think can be done to stop this, or at least prevent the trend from continuing any more?Honestly?
Firstly, stop making it acceptable to derail discussions like this. People should realise that doing so is perpetuating the skewed double standard in itself - and if they continue to do it, they should be treated as though their contributions are socially unacceptable. In the case of a forum, that means banning them, or excluding them from membership all together.
Secondly, get rid of the myth that people who don't laugh at bigoted humour just "don't get it", or "need to lighten up". There's really nothing humorous about derailing a conversation with a sexist joke, or reducing a woman to nothing more than her appearance and sex. People in this very thread have claimed that they only made such comments to make any women reading angry. That's sexist in itself, isn't it? They know that they can take a serious discussion and trivialise it by joking, because as male members of this forum, they hold the balance of power and get to decide which topics are serious/worthy and which aren't.
Thirdly, stop acting as though "she's ugly" (or for that matter, "she's hot") are valid critiques of a female member's contributions. There are female members of this site - not even talking about myself here - who have been slammed and ridiculed for their looks, as though that's what's important about them. Now, regardless of whether someone does find them attractive, how is that relevant to the conversation at hand, 99% of the time? I could have three eyes and the warty nose of a witch, and it shouldn't matter - if I post a video of me discussing something else, that shouldn't be the talking point, not in my case, not in anyone's. We don't criticise male vloggers or cosplayers for their looks, so why do we do it with women?
Fourthly, get rid of the idea that it's all right to make incredibly personal/vulgar comments about female members. The other day, I had someone claim that they wanted to hunt me down and kill me. I've had PMs from people describing how they want to force themselves on me in the past. I know I'm not the only one. These guys know they can instantly take away a little of whatever power I might have by reminding me that I'm small and weak and that violence against me is a threat I always have to take seriously, no matter what the source. This is a problem on a much larger level than the more superficial stuff, and I've been able to rely on staff here in the past to handle things when they get that ugly. But it shouldn't be happening in the first place.
The thing that really needs to change is people's attitudes - both men's and women's, because women do all of these things too. The idea that only people who take life too seriously care about this stuff is a toxic one. It allows people to trivialise serious problems - not just this, but plenty of similar problems, too, like the way online communities treat people of colour, or LGBT members. It's really sad that most people see this thread as a joke, when that very attitude only contributes to the perpetuation of this kind of culture.